Ayotochco (Mdz51r)

Ayotochco (Mdz51r)
Compound Glyph

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This compound glyph for the place name Ayotochco involves an armadillo (ayotochtli) coat and tail drawn in black and white onto what is otherwise a rabbit (tochtli). A spray of water (atl) comes out of the hybrid animal's body between the front and back legs. The animal is shown in profile, facing to the viewer's right. The armadillo parts are white, segmented, and textured, while the rabbit parts are purple (with the exception of the white fur under the chin). The eye and teeth are also white. The water is a typical turquoise blue with lines of current and white droplets/beads and a white turbinate shell splashing off the flow. The (-co) locative suffix is not shown visually.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

The water provides a phonetic indicator that this animal's name will start with "a," helping the reader come up with ayotochtli [or āyōtōchtli, if we recognize vowel length. The rabbit (toch-) is another phonetic clue that this is an ayotochtli, an armadillo.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

ayutuchco, pu^o

Gloss Normalization:

Ayotochco, pueblo

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)

Date of Manuscript:

c. 1541, or by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Mexico City

Semantic Categories:

phonetic dimensions

place name

Syntax:

locative (not visual)

noun(s)

Writing Features:

compound of phonogram(s) & logogram(s)

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Movement

Names (places)

Socio-Political Units, Cities, Towns, Neighborhoods

Water

Cultural Content, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Colors:

blue (turquoise)

gray

white/neutral

Shapes and Perspectives:

segmented

dotted, granular, textured

profile view

facing right

Parts (compounds or simplex + notation):

Reading Order (Compounds or Simplex + Notation):

upward

multidirectional

Keywords:

armadillos, agua, connejos

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

ayotoch(tli) or āyōtōch(tli), armadillo, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ayotochtli
toch(tli) or tōch(tli), rabbit, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tochtli
a(tl), https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/atl

Karttunen’s Interpretation:

"Armadillo Place" [Frances Karttunen, unpublished manuscript, used here with her permission.]

Additional Scholars' Interpretations:

"On the Armadillo" (Berdan and Anawalt, 1992, vol. 1, p. 174; they spell it Ayutuchco)

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

"Lugar del Armadillo"

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Codex Mendoza, folio 51 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 112 of 118.

Image Source, Rights:

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).